As I see it, the purpose of networking is to tell someone, “Hey, you seem cool. It looks like we share a non-zero amount of goals / values. No promises, but maybe I’ll find out about a cool opportunity later that I’ll share with you—although I don’t have one at the moment.”
Supposedly, you’re more likely to get introduced to a career opportunity by a casual acquaintance—maybe someone you had a college class with and are now friends with on LinkedIn—than a close friend. (Although of course this is weighting all of your acquaintances against just a handful of friends, but the implication is still that more acquaintances = more opportunities.)
I’m talking about, for example, a student who is actively networking with senior people, hoping that one of the senior people will offer the student a job or something, without applying to these jobs. Do you agree this situation is negative?
+1 karma but disagree.
As I see it, the purpose of networking is to tell someone, “Hey, you seem cool. It looks like we share a non-zero amount of goals / values. No promises, but maybe I’ll find out about a cool opportunity later that I’ll share with you—although I don’t have one at the moment.”
Supposedly, you’re more likely to get introduced to a career opportunity by a casual acquaintance—maybe someone you had a college class with and are now friends with on LinkedIn—than a close friend. (Although of course this is weighting all of your acquaintances against just a handful of friends, but the implication is still that more acquaintances = more opportunities.)
Making sure we’re on the same page:
I’m talking about, for example, a student who is actively networking with senior people, hoping that one of the senior people will offer the student a job or something, without applying to these jobs. Do you agree this situation is negative?